The runes flared again.
The chamber had tasted transformation once—
Now, it craved more.
Smoke still hung in the corners of the Hall of Mutation, curling like fingers reaching for what had just been born. The echoes of Glepharion's metamorphosis hadn't faded. His presence lingered in the shadows, his laugh quieter now, deeper… more aware.
Three subjects stood before me.
Each had entered willingly.
Each bore wounds that had never healed.
And each believed that broken things deserved new forms.
The harpy's wings were torn. The bones jutted at odd angles. When she moved, they cracked faintly, yet her back remained straight. She didn't lower her gaze.
The lizardkin's scales were scorched, melted unevenly across his chest and neck. Where fire had disfigured him, something tougher had replaced it—calloused flesh, blackened and ridged like volcanic stone.
And the crawler… was silence itself. A thing from the Deep Nest. A creature born without voice, without eyes. But it had followed every command, learned every pattern, moved only when unseen. It now stood still—but I felt it watching me.
I descended the steps to the fusion dais.
"Three broken things," I said softly, "each craving a new beginning."
None replied. None needed to.
The mutation core hummed, sensing intent. The stasis field around it shimmered as I unlocked the next stage.
> [Mutation Cycle II: Triple Fusion Pathway Selected]
[Catalyst: Fragment of Broken Evolution]
[Host Sync: Multi-node Parallel Activation]
[Success Probability: 43% | Collapse Risk: 21% | Unknown Variable: High]
I looked at them one last time.
"This process may not reward bravery. It may punish it."
The harpy spoke first.
"If I die, let my soul fly higher than my body ever could."
The lizardkin chuckled, voice deep and rasping. "If I shatter, make a sword from the pieces."
The crawler simply… stepped forward.
I gave the command.
The runes ignited.
And chaos began again.
---
Three beams of energy, threaded with echoes from the shard, struck their forms simultaneously. The room howled—walls vibrating under the pressure of raw transformation. Not magic. Not science.
Mutation.
The collapse and rebirth of identity.
The harpy screamed as her wings bent backward, feathers turning to crystal, then to smoke, then regrowing as something skeletal and beautiful. Veins of light coursed through them. Her eyes burned silver.
The lizardkin fell, convulsing. His scales cracked, shattered—then reformed. Layer by layer, his body turned metallic, obsidian-like. Spines grew from his back. His heartbeat pulsed like thunder.
The crawler didn't make a sound.
But shadows poured from its body.
Its form thinned, stretched, split, and rewove itself. Tentacles formed and dissolved. Limbs bent in impossible ways, then aligned into something new.
Then—
The light stopped.
Smoke rose.
And three new beings stood where broken ones had once knelt.
---
I stepped forward, scanning them.
The harpy now had no feathers—only wings of bone laced with threads of light. Her body was leaner, streamlined for speed and impact. Her claws were elongated, her breath pulsed cold.
> [Mutation Successful]
[New Form: Virella, the Winged Dagger]
[Class: Adaptive Striker | Trait: Boneflight, Piercing Cry, Wind Vein Precision]
The lizardkin had bulked massively, standing nearly a head taller. His skin now resembled volcanic glass, etched with lava veins that pulsed in rhythm with his breath. When he moved, the air shimmered from the heat.
> [Mutation Successful]
[New Form: Ka'Zhur, the Obsidian Maw]
[Class: Juggernaut | Trait: Thermal Core, Magma Shard Armor, Heat Absorption]
And the crawler… was no longer a crawler.
It had shape now. A bipedal form of flexible shadow and smoke. No eyes, but an array of sensory ridges. Its fingers elongated into blades that shimmered between states—solid and intangible. Its presence was nearly undetectable.
> [Mutation Successful]
[New Form: Silthis, the Whispered Blade]
[Class: Assassin | Trait: Voidstep, Adaptive Camouflage, Echo Sight]
I watched them move—testing limbs, bending light, feeling their new limits.
They did not cheer.
They breathed.
As if, for the first time, they understood what it meant to be alive.
---
But something else stirred.
From the corner of the chamber, behind a curtain of runes, Glepharion twitched.
He'd been smiling, relaxed.
Now he stared at the mutation core—what remained of it.
It pulsed faintly.
> [System Notice: Catalyst Residue – Active Shard Detected]
[Warning: Residual Echo Seeking Host]
The core was not dormant.
It was hungry.
Before I could act, the shard moved.
It launched—not toward the newly mutated, but toward the crawler's shadow.
The one left behind.
Silthis spun, but too late.
From the ground, its own shadow rose.
Something crawled out—twisted, wrong. A failed echo. A memory of what Silthis might have become… if it hadn't succeeded.
A Hollowborn Wretch.
---
The creature howled.
All light in the chamber dimmed.
Even Glepharion paused, unsure.
The wretch was malformed—like Silthis, but bloated. Its limbs dragged behind it, fused and slick. Its eyes glowed not with sight, but rage. A mouth opened across its chest, filled with nothing but whispers.
I summoned the Boneflare hounds.
Virella leapt first, slicing downward—her wing slashing through the creature's side. It shrieked but did not fall. Ka'Zhur charged next, fists igniting. His punch cracked the floor, sending magma splinters into the beast's spine.
Silthis hesitated.
He stared at the creature—his failed self. His possible past. A version of him that had drowned instead of risen.
Then he moved.
And he didn't just kill it.
He unmade it.
Each strike a question. Each movement a refusal.
Until the wretch lay still.
---
> [Hostile Entity Terminated]
[System Alert: Mutation Core Fragment Depleted – Restabilizing]
[Silthis has gained Passive Trait: Shadow Rejection]
I stood in silence.
Not because of fear.
But because of what I had just seen.
For the first time, a mutation had tried to take itself back.
To reclaim what had escaped.
This process—this beautiful, dangerous process—was not just mine to control.
It had instinct.
It had will.
And somewhere, deep beneath this place…
Something was watching.
---
I turned to the three mutants—Virella, Ka'Zhur, Silthis.
"You are my first perfected soldiers," I said.
"You are the beginning."
They knelt.
And in that moment, I knew—Netherhold would no longer be a sanctuary.
It would become a forge.
And I would become not just its king…
But its architect.
---
END OF CHAPTER 9